Choir Fundraising Ideas: 16 Great Ways to Raise Money

Singing. How expensive could it be? Turns out, it's still pretty expensive. Even without the instruments that band and orchestra have, choirs have the same high costs and expenses. Choirs come in many forms; high school choirs, middle school choirs, church choirs, A Capella groups, youth choirs, among many others. 

It doesn’t matter what choir you’re a part of, raising money for a choir isn’t as hard or intimidating as it may feel.

In this blog we’ve put down 16 of the best choir fundraising ideas. From digital fundraising to community fundraisers, you too can raise thousands for your choir.

Digital Choir Fundraising Ideas

1. Online Crowdfunding Campaign

Whether you call it online fundraising, crowdfunding, or another word, this is one of the easiest ways for a choir to raise money. Instead of selling products or collecting cash, students share a fundraising page with family, friends, alumni, and community supporters.

This works especially well for choir programs because supporters often want to give directly to the students and the music program. Parents, grandparents, relatives, former choir members, and local supporters are usually more interested in helping than buying products they do not need.

With a Teamfi digital fundraiser, every student can participate by sharing their own personal fundraising link. This helps expand your reach beyond the school community and gives your choir a simple way to raise money online.

2. Digital Calendar Fundraiser

The fundraiser that’s been making waves in choirs across the country is the digital calendar fundraiser. These fundraisers are fundraisers built within a 31-day calendar. 31 days, 31 different values to donate.

Supporters choose a date on the calendar and donate that amount. For example, someone who picks the 12th donates $12, while someone who picks the 30th donates $30.

It can be done on paper, but a digital calendar fundraiser makes it easier to share, track, and collect donations without cash or checks.

Calendar fundraisers are especially useful when each student has an individual fundraising goal. Fill a calendar? That’s nearly $500 raised.

3. Practice-a-Thon or Sing-a-Thon Fundraiser

What is an a-thon? It’s the fundraiser built around an activity. So if you want your choir to practice, especially when it comes to school-age choirs, the a-thon is a great way to help raise money while practicing their vocals.

Fundraiser organizers collect donations based on how long they sing, how many songs they perform, or simply as flat donations in support of the event.

4. QR Codes and Donation Pages

Similar to crowdfunding, QR codes and donation pages allow for for low-effort, high yield fundraising.

Placing QR codes within programs, on the walls of your performance center, and at choir events, can create meaningful donations when tied to an online donation page.

These donations pages should be clearly program branded with what you’re fundraising for, which is a theme for all digital fundraisers.

The best part about donation pages is you can use them year-to-year at the same URL. You can use a page with a digital fundraising company, a Venmo, PayPal, or anything platform.

Choir Event Fundraisers

5. Choir Concert Fundraiser

We know what you’re thinking, isn’t this obvious? Yes, of course. You’re already doing concerts. Each concert itself can be thought of as a fundraiser.

Perhaps you’re a middle school choir. You can sell tickets, accept donations at the door, place QR codes in the program, or make a short donation appeal before intermission. Be clear about the purpose of your ask and why you're asking during the show.

Instead of simply asking people to donate to the choir, give them a specific reason. For example, “Help us raise $5,000 for our spring choir trip” is stronger than a general request for support.

6. Dinner and Performance Night

A dinner and performance night combines food, music, and fundraising into one event. This could be a pasta dinner, catered meal, dessert night, or casual community dinner with live choir performances throughout the evening.

Choir students can perform solos, small group pieces, or full ensemble songs. Tickets can be sold in advance.

Take the event further by pairing it with a silent auction, raffle, and sponsorships.

7. Fall Festival

Every town from Florida to California to Maine and Idaho should have a fall festival. These festivals are among a number of great fall-specific fundraising ideas that feature hay rides, pumpkin carving, corn mazes, bobbing for apples, ciders, and ideally the changing of the leaves in the background.

Now if you’re in the midwest, northeast, west, fall fundraisers are pretty commonplace. It’s still true down south. People love fall. If it’s not your town, and your group is able to pull it off, it can be an incredible community event.

Seasonal fundraisers are always winners. Winter, summer, spring, and of course, fall. 

8. Holiday Caroling Fundraiser

We talked about fall. Now let's talk about the winter holiday season. Holiday caroling can be a strong seasonal fundraiser for choir programs. Students can perform at community events, local businesses, retirement homes, holiday markets, school events, or private gatherings.

Your choir can accept donations, charge a performance fee, or run a holiday giving campaign alongside the performances.

This works well because people are often more willing to give during the holiday season, especially when the fundraiser feels joyful and connected to the community.

9. Talent Show Fundraiser

Another fundraising idea that works really well for school choir directors and PTOs and PTAs is the talent show. It gives students a chance to perform while raising money for the choir. Don't leave it as choir only, try to include students from across the school for a wider range of participants and acts.

Raise money through ticket sales, concessions, donations, sponsorships, or audience voting. For example, attendees can donate to vote for their favorite act.

Talent shows are a great way to involve more students and create an event that feels fun, social, and school-wide.

10. Karaoke Night Fundraiser

A karaoke night is a fun event fundraiser that fits naturally with a choir program. Students, parents, teachers, and community members can pay to participate, attend, or request songs.

You can run it as a casual event, a competition, or a themed night. Add concessions, raffles, or donation jars to increase the total raised.

This is a strong option for choirs that want something lighthearted and easy for families to enjoy.

Community and Sponsorship Choir Fundraisers

11. Business Sponsorship Program

A fundraising idea we recommend for any organization, including orchestra and bands. Local business sponsorships can help choir programs raise money while building community support. Businesses can sponsor a concert, trip, competition season, section, program booklet, or the choir as a whole.

In return, sponsors can be recognized on concert programs, choir shirts, banners, social media posts, websites, or event signage.

This works best when you create simple sponsorship levels. For example, $250, $500, and $1,000 tiers give businesses clear options and make the ask easier.

12. Program Ad Sales

If your choir prints concert programs, ad sales can be a simple fundraising idea to raise money. Local businesses, families, and community supporters can purchase ad space in the program.

You can also sell student shoutouts, senior recognition ads, or family messages. These are especially popular for end-of-year concerts, senior nights, musicals, and major performances.

Keep the options simple so families and businesses understand exactly what they are purchasing.

13. Alumni Night

Just as a high school soccer team might host an alumni game, why not have former choir members come back and rediscover their singing voices for a concert?

Choir alumni can be one of the most overlooked fundraising audiences. Former students understand the impact of the program and may be willing to give back, especially if they had a positive experience.

An alumni night can add in a few songs to an existing concert that’s already going on.

Product and Service Choir Fundraisers

14. Sell a Product

Selling products is a classic form of fundraising called, wait for, product fundraising! Chocolate bars, bake sales, popcorn, cookie dough, submarine sandwiches, candles, flowers, the list goes on and on. There’s a product fundraiser for literally anything you can think of. 

To start, simply find out “what’s a product we could sell as a choir?” Maybe it’s near the holidays and you can connect with a local nursery or greenhouse to sell wreaths. Maybe you’re part of an elementary school and a book sale makes sense.

There’s no shortage of products to sell.

15. Concession Stand Fundraiser

Concession sales are commonplace at any music, athletic, or community event. The key is finding an event that should have concessions, or additional concessions, and enacting on that.

Choir concerts, school events, musicals, talent shows, and performances. Selling snacks, drinks, baked goods, or simple meal items can help raise extra money during events you are already hosting.

The key is keeping it simple. Choose items that are easy to buy, price, serve, and clean up. You do not need a complicated menu to make this work.

Concessions usually work best as a supplemental fundraiser run by volunteers. It isn’t super high yielding, but if you can get the volunteers, it can be a good fundraiser.

16. Choir Merchandise Sale

There's one product we didn't specifically mention early, and that's merch. Choir merchandise like shirts, hats, hoodies, are something every choir should have. Take pride in your choir program! 

These fundraisers aren't high yielding. Items like shirts cost money, and you can only resell them for so much. It is however a great way to get your choir's name out there while giving kids and adults affiliated with your choir something from your choir to wear or use.

Merchandise sales are especially useful for show choirs, competition choirs, travel groups, and programs with strong family support.

Found Your Fundraiser? Let's Start

The key to any good fundraising is clear and realistic goals, a fundraiser that's aligned with your group, and in the case of digital fundraising, a platform that is easy to use.

“Help our choir raise $10,000 for competition travel” is much stronger than “Support the choir.” An a-thon makes sense for elementary, middle, and high school kids, but may not make sense for more experience choirs. Digital fundraising platforms like Teamfi can net you 96-97% of what you raise. These are the small details that turn fundraising from a difficult chore to an easy year-to-year success story.

Make participation easy. Use your performances as fundraising moments. Concerts, festivals, musicals, banquets, and community events are great opportunities to remind supporters what the choir needs.

Finally, choose fundraisers that protect your time. Choir directors already have enough to manage. A fundraiser should help the program raise money, not create weeks of extra work.